Air Midwest Commuter Planes Cleared

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, January 12, 2003

All of the Air Midwest commuter planes inspected since a fatal crash in Charlotte, N.C., last week have been cleared for further flight, the airline said Monday.

The company, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc., said it expected to complete inspections on 40 Raytheon/Beech 1900D turboprops in operation. All of the 29 checked had elevator controls that functioned properly, the company said. There were no significant problems discovered.

Information from the flight data recorder recovered from US Airways Express Flight 5481 showed the elevator control on the tail of the plane moving up and down in an unusual way. Elevators are flaps that swing from the rear of a plane's horizontal tail stabilizer, increasing or decreasing lift.

Maintenance workers in West Virginia did repairs on the assembly that controls movement of the elevator two days before the flight crashed Wednesday after 37 seconds, killing all 21 aboard.

Three final Beech 1900D aircraft in Air Midwest's fleet are not in service and will be inspected this week, the airline said.

Air Midwest said it has made its findings available to the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.